Morning Gentlemen.
I have recently acquired what I believe is a piece of Port related ephemera. this pictures below are of a wooden, screw top tub which has a postage label marked Hunt Roope & Co. The Portuguese stamps date from 1953 so I'm assuming that date to be about right for this item.
The label states "Sample without value" From this I'm guessing it was used to post Port samples back to England.

I have no idea why they would post these (what look like) quite small samples to England, especially when they would presumably have had an agent and all the trimmings in London. Perhaps it is the Beaujolais Nouveau of it's age. I can only really see them doing this with vintage port. Probably a barrel sample which they wanted the directors to try before bottling. And 1953 would presumably mean a port from 1950, or 1951? I am speculating, but it is very interesting, thank you for posting these pictures.

The address on this tube is that of the original Hunt Roope lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia that now belongs to my Family. The lodge is now a Warre lodge although some of the vats still have the Hunt Roope symbol on them. We bought the lodge in the 1990's and it is one of the most beautiful that we have, with many stone arches and countless fine wooden beams. The lodge is full of wooden vats and casks. I think that the original Hunt Roope owners would be pleased that it is still being used in this way.

Paul Symington wrote:The address on this tube is that of the original Hunt Roope lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia that now belongs to my Family. The lodge is now a Warre lodge although some of the vats still have the Hunt Roope symbol on them. We bought the lodge in the 1990's and it is one of the most beautiful that we have, with many stone arches and countless fine wooden beams. The lodge is full of wooden vats and casks. I think that the original Hunt Roope owners would be pleased that it is still being used in this way.

Thanks for that bit of history Paul. I wasn't aware this is a Warre's Lodge now and glad to hear it's remained in the same beautiful state. May need to sneak into it one day and have a look for myself.